Social Workers for Change

What runs through your mind when you think of a social worker? A baby-snatcher? A welfare worker? A bleeding heart? An agent of social control?

Social welfare students are aware of these stereotypes surrounding their profession and are striving to break the perpetuation of these stereotypes. Social workers want to be known for what they are: therapists, service providers, advocates, case managers, researchers, CEOs, directors, politicians, labor union presidents, community organizers and activists, all bound by a strong code of ethics. Social workers have a history of activism that can be traced back to Jane Addams in the late 1800’s. She based her work on the concept of nonviolence, out of which she created the Hull House movement in Chicago, was a labor rights activist and participant in many strikes including the municipal worker’s Pullman strike of 1894, and was a spokeswoman against the Spanish American War and World War I. For her commitment to social justice and nonviolence Jane Addams won the Nobel peace prize in 1931, four years before her death.

Social work students and professionals are redefining themselves in the spirit of Jane Addams, as advocates for peace and nonviolence, by taking action against the Bush Administration’s pending war against Iraq. Social Welfare graduate students at UCLA have taken an active part in organizing against U.S. involvement in war against Iraq by creating a coalition of social work students to march in solidarity with peace activists world wide to state that that this war will not be fought in our name.

On February 19th, a group of social welfare students organized across the county to bring together students from USC and Cal State LA, as well as members of Social Workers for Social and Economic Justice and the National Association of Social Workers (NASW) to attend the anti-war march and rally in Hollywood. We marched to state that a war in Iraq is in direct opposition with the social work values and ethics that we are bound to as professionals.

The social work preamble directly states that “the primary mission of the social work profession is to enhance human well-being and help meet the basic human needs of all people, with particular attention to the needs and empowerment of people who are vulnerable, oppressed, and living in poverty.” Social work values state that as professionals we are to recognize and respect the inherent dignity and worth of the individual. We are to be persons of integrity who are sensitive to issues of cultural and ethnic diversity and we are to and strive to end all forms of discrimination and social injustice.

Keeping our values and ethics in mind, we recognize that people of color are unequally represented in the front lines of the military. We recognize the negative financial impact war has on poor populations both domestically and abroad. We recognize that war spending and money for prisons is on the rise, while spending for schools and social programs is on the decline. We recognize that a war that is being called against the will of the American people is unfair and unjust.

As social workers, we will fight to defend the human rights of Americans as well as people worldwide. We will work to educate, empower and mobilize others to take a stand against these injustices. We will carry on Jane Addams’ spirit of activism and nonviolence within social work, as this vision of positive systemic revolution is the foundation upon which social work is built. So when you view the coverage of the next anti-war rally on March 15th, look for the banner that states “Social Workers for Social and Economic Justice” and there we’ll stand with our heads held high stating that we are social workers and we say NO to war in Iraq.